Dust: Second Chances
by Silent.Antimony
Summary: Several years after the events of Dust: An Elysian Tail, Dust is once again called upon to defend the world he lives in. Story contains major spoilers, will likely include some degree of romance, and the rating will probably change as a result.
1. Prologue

Dust: Second Chances

Prologue

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Disclaimer: I don't own the story, nor am I profiting off of it or claiming any part of it for my own. Just writing for fun.

Warning: Takes place after the end of the game, so expect a lot of major spoilers.

* * *

"_There will be today, there will be tomorrow, there will be always, and there was yesterday, and there was the day before..." _

― _Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace_

Fidget's wings were a flurry of orange as the tiny nimbat pushed herself to the limits chasing after the silvery wisp that had been Dust's essence, and Ahrah following beside it. The joints of her wings and the muscles along her back ached from the abuse, but Fidget hardly faltered.

_He's alive,_ she repeated to herself firmly in her mind, saving her breath for flying. _Elder Gray Eyes said good can't be vanquished easily. He's gotta be alive! ...Sort of. Maybe he's a ghost like Kane? ...Does that even count?_

As Ahrah's guardians, Fidget's clan were able to sense the sentient sword, and that was probably the only reason she was eventually able to catch up and locate the source of her gut feeling. Ducking down beneath the canopy of leaves, she gulped in breath after breath, feeling slightly dizzy as she searched the forest around her. _This place looks familiar,_ she thought to herself, passing by a herd of grazing deer. _Isn't this where I first saw Dusk way back then? If I remember correctly, there was a thicket..._

Drifting through the forest, Fidget's wings steadily beat the air as she flitted amongst the leaves and branches, avoiding the monsters present in the area. She recognized the thicket immediately. Framed by large trees, the branches of the canopy didn't quite reach each other, leaving a shaft of light that shone down upon the flowers sprouting from the soft grass, butterflies flitting over them daintily.

But Dusk was nowhere to be seen.

Making a little noise of distress in the back of her throat, Fidget closed her eyes and concentrated, her paws held tightly to her chest. _I gotta focus. I gotta find them. If I can just... pinpoint... maybe, there?_ She creaked one green eye open, then took in a deep breath and flitted off further into the forest. The sound of rushing water quickly became audible as she approached a pool of water with several waterfalls forming a rough half-circle around the clearing.

There, in the middle of the pool, Ahrah floated just above the surface of the water. The runes emblazoned on the hilt lacked their usual glow, and the sword itself was surrounded by a silvery mist that hung suspended around it, dormant.

"There you are!" Fidget cried out, flying over and darting toward the sword and mist. "Who do you think you are, leaving me behind at that stupid excuse for a funeral-"

_Ping!_

Fidget was caught off-guard by the flash of light as she hurtled backward through the air, tumbling head over tail. Spreading her wings and fanning out her limbs, she regained control of her movement before she hit the water, shaking her head to get the ringing sound out of her ears. _Now I know how Dust felt whenever he smacked Ahrah against one of those reinforced walls and bounced off of it._

"Hey!" she snapped, flying back over. "What gives?! Do you have any idea how hard and fast I've just flown to find you two!?" Not unlike an angry wasp, Fidget darted around the sword, poking and prodding, and unfailingly ricocheting back when she activated Ahrah's defenses.

"Why are you doing this?!" Fidget cried out as she righted herself again. Sinking down onto a branch that hung over the pool, her large green eyes misted with tears. Receiving no response, she buried her face in her arms, whimpering. "This isn't fair... We did everything we were supposed to. This isn't fair!" Her voice quieted as she tucked herself into a ball, wings tightly nestled against her body. The nimbat's frame shook from the force of the sobs that wracked her body.

Night fell, and a new day began. Ginger entered the clearing with a wary tread, her gaze immediately drawn to the sword at the center of the pond. Tearing her attention away from it, she spotted the shivering bundle of orange fur. Her eyes softened. "Fidget," she called out.

The nimbat's red-rimmed green eyes blearily opened, heavily encrusted with sleep and gritty from crying so hard. She dropped down off the branch and caught herself with her wings, flying over to Ginger and nestling herself in the fox's arms. "Nothing about this makes any sense," Fidget muttered as Ginger sat down at the edge of the pond and wetted the hem of her dress, lifting it up to clean her eyes. "You're going to get eye goobers all over your dress."

"Few things concerning Dust make sense," Ginger replied softly, "though I'm sure you've figured that out long before now." Once Fidget's eyes were clean, she gathered the nimbat against her shoulder and tucked her cheek against the other warmblood's back.

"I just don't understand why he had to die..." Fidget closed her eyes, trembling. "Everything about Dust was just one tragedy after the other. Two souls in one body constantly fighting each other for supremacy. Not knowing who he was, or why he existed for the longest time. Finally finding a purpose, and he had people on both ends who claimed to have known one of his halves, trying to sway his alliance. Trying to get back the person whose death they'd grieved for. He did everything right. He freed the moonbloods, defeated General Gaius, saved the entire villages of Aurora and Mudpot. And what does he get for all his hard work?" She gestured with a paw back over her shoulder. "Death."

Ginger let Fidget rant, gazing silently at the mist-enshrouded sword. "But it wasn't for nothing. Surely you realize that?"

"What's the point of doing any of it if he was just going to _die_?!"

"Oh, Fidget..." Drawing back to focus her sight on the nimbat, her weary expression furrowed into a quiet frown. "Dust knew it was a possibility. But his death doesn't undo all the good he's done. Like you said, he saved countless lives. He liberated an entire race from certain extinction. People who would have died otherwise will live through him, and that is his legacy." She raised her eyes back to the sword. "The best we can do now is make sure no one forgets what he's done for us... so that the next time he's needed, he is welcomed with open arms rather than suspicion and hostility."

Fidget followed Ginger's gaze. "The next time...?" she repeated softly.

"He wouldn't be here if he were truly done. He is waiting for the time when he'll be needed again."

For a time the two fell quiet, both lost in their own thoughts. Ginger eventually rose to her feet and began to walk away, though before she had gotten more than a dozen paces, Fidget slipped out of her arms and flitted back to the tree overlooking the pond. Ginger looked after her in confusion. "Fidget..."

"I'm still the guardian of that sword," Fidget explained with prideful stubbornness. "If that idiot's gonna sleep until the next world crisis, he's going to need someone around to make sure he doesn't get messed with until then."

Ginger smiled, nodding. "I'll stop by to visit you frequently."

"You'd better," Fidget warned with a smirk. "And bring offerings of delicious food! Nobody likes a hungry nimbat. I might just eat your face off."

The vixen laughed softly. "I'll remember that." Bidding each other farewell, Ginger turned and headed back to Aurora.


	2. Chapter One

Dusk: Second Chances

Chapter One

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"_What is the cause of historical events? Power. What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transferred to one person. On what condition are the wills of the masses transferred to one person? On condition that the person express the will of the whole people. That is, power is power. That is, power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand. " _

― _Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace_

Seven years had passed, and during that time the world had slowly begun to recover from its ordeal. Moonbloods slowly integrated back into society, but old prejudices were difficult to completely eradicate, and the moonbloods found themselves faced with thinly-veiled tolerance and wary suspicion. There were villages where they were openly accepted, but Gaius's army had not been entirely decimated in the Moonblood Genocide. There existed many people who still believed Gaius's opinion of the moonbloods, and hate crimes were frequent.

Ginger had become a spokesperson for the moonbloods. She traveled often to spread the idea of acceptance and tolerance to the people who had been outcasted for so long. Though this resulted with her own share of hostility from other warmbloods, she valiantly defended her cause.

Nevertheless, an uprising was in the making, and Gaius's name still revently whispered on the winds.

_Soon,_ they promised. _Soon..._

* * *

The explosion that occurred after striking the final blow against Gaius had broken his back. He had felt something in his spine snap, and numbness from the waist down had quickly followed. The heat had been overwhelming, and as Gaius plunged into the rolling depths of magma, Dust knew that his own end would be similar. Death was almost instant for the General, the heat scorching his lungs, his clothing and flesh igniting into a fire that consumed him to the bone and buried him in liquid rock.

He was lucky, he realized as he looked up at Fidget's and Ginger's horrified and saddened expressions. General Gaius had died looking into the face of someone he felt had betrayed him, his army decimated, his dreams turned to ash. His last thoughts were likely those of despair and loss. But here was Dust, about to die under the gaze of trusted friends, his questions for the most part answered and his goals achieved.

Dust smiled and closed his eyes as heat consumed him, and he willingly resigned himself to death. Pain gave way to numbness, and the brightness of fire faded into darkness. For a time, he knew peace.

* * *

A flash of light, the brief sensation of falling, and the sudden immersion into coldness that denied him breath. Dust thrashed, instinctively kicking out. He couldn't tell up from down, couldn't see, because every time he tried opening his eyes they would sting from the liquid surrounding him.

His hand broke the surface, his body twisting to follow. He plunged his head upward with a hoarse gasp of air into burning lungs before falling and submerging again. He thrashed mindlessly until someone grasped him around the middle, and he found himself being pulled up. The weightless feeling left his body as gravity reclaimed him, hauled out of the water and into the air. Dust's body was wracked with hacking coughs as he tried to expel all of the water that had been taken into his lungs. There were hands that guided him to sit up and bent him over, sharp cuffs to his back helping to knock the water out of his lungs with each heavy cough.

When at last he could breathe somewhat easily, his throat raw from coughing, Dust squinted and tried to look up at his savior... but it was night, and all he could see were two glowing white eyes. He flinched as a hand, black as the night itself, reached up to move his sopping hair from his face.

"Be at ease, my friend. You are in good company," a quiet, sinister-sounding voice told him. Dust frowned momentarily, but there was some recognition behind that voice... and he found himself believing him, despite the tone in which the message was delivered.

Blackness took him again.

* * *

Dust woke to the sound of voices and the warmth of a crackling fire. One of the voices was shrill and squeaky. The other he recognized as the quiet, sinister voice from earlier. His ear twitched, his brow furrowing as he frowned, trying to listen to what was being said.

"... - you _sure_ you haven't seen Ahrah anywhere!? It's a giant sword that sometimes talks, has little glowy runes on it?! You've seen it before!"

"Repetition of your question will not change the answer I have given."

"But it's not in the pond! If Dust appeared and fell into the pond, the sword had to have gone _somewhere._ It's not like swords just disappear into thin air!"

"It's not as if bodies simly appear out of thin air either, and yet, here we are."

"...Your voice of reason sucks. Just saying."

"I am here to serve."

"Yeah, well, serve better." The shrill voice had settled into a disgruntled sort of mutter, but softened further as he heard the soft flapping of wings draw close. "Hey... I think he's waking up! Dust?"

Dust slowly opened his eyes in response. His blurry sight focused on a small, kittenish face with large green eyes and oversized ears. "Hello, Fidget," he murmured.

"DUST!" The nimbat hurled herself at him and ran into his chest, tucking her face up beneath his chin, bawling shamelessly. "I thought you were dead! Well, you _were_ dead! But you're alive! I'm so happy to see y- _Why are you wearing Sereth's robes?_"

"You have only just noticed that?" Sereth asked, sitting on the opposite side of the fire from Dust. The moonblood was wearing a simple gold-trimmed purple tunic over black slacks. His boots were sitting a bit closer to the fire, likely drying out from his plunge into the water to rescue him. Dusk was surprised to see straight, shoulder-length golden-yellow hair swept back from his head and hanging down to his shoulders. It stood out in stark contrast to his black scales.

"I was a little preoccupied! ...Wait! I don't see his clothes hanging out to dry! ...Is he _naked_ under there?!"

"As much as any of us are beneath our clothing, Fidget."

The nimbat flew up into the air. "That's not what I meant! You're telling me that whatever force it was that brought him back could create an entire body for him, but didn't even give him any clothing?! How lazy! ...Not to mention _indecent._"

Dust coughed out a chuckle. "Says the naked flying nimbat."

"Hey!" Her affront didn't last long, though. She flew back down to sit on Dust's chest as he propped himself up on his elbows, reaching out to touch his face. "...Naked reincarnations aside, I'm really, really glad to see you again, Dust." She smiled, then perked up. "Oh, oh! We need to tell Ginger! And Haley! Ooh, _especially_ Haley! Did you know she's actually been by a lot over the years to pine over your dead floaty mistiness?"

That stopped him cold. "...Years?"

"Trust you to completely ignore the part about the girl pining over you. Yes, years. Seven years, to be exact."

Dust lifted his hand to his forehead, pressing his fingers to his temples as he closed his eyes. "...Why, though?"

Sereth spoke up at that point. "I would imagine for the same reason Jin and Cassius's souls were combined to create you in the first place. You have been brought back because there is something you need to do."

"...Way to be depressing, Sereth," Fidget mumbled. "Couldn't the divine forces that be have resurrected him, you know, just as a sort of _reward_? 'Here, Dust, you've worked your butt off and suffered more than anyone has any right to suffer in order to save the world, and we think it was pretty crappy of us to return you straight to the Life Thread, so here! Have a second chance. Hook up with that Haley girl and get laid!' You know, something like that."

"Fidget." Dust groaned and buried his face in his hand.

"If I may make a recommendation," the moonblood spoke up from across the fire. Leaning forward to where a kettle was hanging over the fire, Sereth tipped it to pour a fragrant tea into a small cup. Standing, he moved to Dust's side and sat next to him, offering him the tea. "There is little point in pondering it tonight. You have been dead for seven years. At least take this night to rest and reacquaint yourself with the living world."

"Thank you," Dust murmured, sitting up a little further and lifting the steaming cup to his lips, sipping from it. "That does sound like... a pretty decent suggestion, actually."

Sereth's lips curled into a smile. "I do have them from time to time."

Dust smiled in return. "So... how's the situation been with the moonbloods been?"

"Ah, well." Reaching over to pour himself a cup of tea as well, the firelight reflected off his flaxen hair, adding further contrast to the darkness of his scales. "It is better than it has been, I can say that much. We are no longer outcasts, but there are many places we are still not welcome. We continue to keep mostly to ourselves, out of habit just as much as out of consideration to others who are uncomfortable with our presence."

Dust frowned into his tea. "I would have thought that there wouldn't be any more problems, now that Gaius is dead."

"That is an unexpectedly naive assumption, coming from you." Sereth looked to Dust quizzically, though he softened at the fox's frown. "My apologies, I did not mean to come across as harsh. I forget you have the soul of an innocent in you as well as the assassin." Sipping from his tea, he gathered his thoughts for a moment. "Gaius was not the only warmblood who held a distrust and hatred for my people, and many of his army still live. They have their families, to which they indoctrinate their prejudices into their young, and the young tell their friends, who take their word as truth and spread it to other young, impressionable minds."

"So it was all for nothing." Dust lifted his head, brow furrowed and ears lowered.

"Not at all. None of the moonbloods would be alive today if not for you." He waved a hand slightly. "Forgive me my pessimism. I spoke of the trials my people face, but did not shed any light onto the good we have experienced. There are many villages in which we are welcomed, and Ginger has done so much to spread knowledge and acceptance of the moonbloods. She is the ambassador of our people, you know."

Dust smiled warmly at that. "That doesn't surprise me. Ginger's a strong woman. Not many could endure what she has and still fight for the rights of another people."

"Indeed not," Sereth agreed. His luminescent eyes half-lidded with a smile as a yawn split Dust's face. Fidget had long since passed out curled up at Dust's side, her paws tightly wound in the robes he had loaned to him. Leaning forward, he plucked the empty cup from Dust's hands. "Sleep," he advised quietly. "We will speak more in the morning."

"Again with the sensible ideas," Dust retorted with a faint smirk. Shifting to lay back down, mindful not to wake Fidget, he curled up around the nimbat and pillowed his head in his arm, closing his eyes. Just before he was about to drift off, a thought occurred to him, and his pale eyes opened. "...Sereth?"

"Yes?" The moonblood paused in the midst of pouring himself another cup of tea, turning his gaze to Dust.

"I was pretty lucky that you were there to pull me out of the water. Or do you make it a habit of visiting my... grave, or whatever, even more than Harley apparently does?" Dust's brow rose beneath his bangs, staring at the dark figure across the fire.

A mysterious smile curled the corners of Sereth's mouth. "Call it fate. Or fortune, if you are still not one to believe in fate after all you have seen."

Dust frowned. "...Were you the one to wake me up?"

"No. I have not that sort of power. I do, however, have a certain foresight that has assisted with the makings of many of my decisions."

"So you knew it was going to happen."

"I knew _something_ was going to happen." He smiled at Dust's lingering confusion and suspicion. "Best to let this particular matter go, Dust. Attempting to explain to you my aptitude for foresight would be akin to a fish trying to explain to a land dweller how it breathes water instead of air."

Dust sighed, closing his eyes again. "Well, thanks anyway."

"You are most welcome."

* * *

A/N: Hello hello! So I bought Dust on Steam a few days ago, and now that I've finished it, I've found myself woefully lacking in much fanart or fanfiction for this wonderful game. So for once I was actually inspired to write something myself. Now, I am not planning on making this story solely action-packed. I'm a sucker for romances. That said, I don't have a set romance for this story yet - and that is where you come in, dear readers. I would really appreciate your feedback, hearing what you like or don't like about the story and what you would like to see more/less of.

Also, I'm sure someone out there will be really confused as to why I say Sereth has blonde hair. If you look beneath his hood in the game, he has two small yellow braids hanging down. So there's my reason for that.

Just a forewarning: my updates will not be reliable. I have a history of very sporadic updates, and pressuring me relentlessly to do so generally just gets my muse all flustered and then she won't talk to me at all. Even so, I am determined to finish this one. Let's do this!


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